The collapse of Soviet power in Europe was the result mainly of social and economic change, rather than international pressure. Eastern Europe was one of the most important strongholds of Soviet Union against western world. The communist states in Eastern Europe were considered as a satellite of USSR. However, as a result of the Cold war, in the late 1980s, Soviet power collapsed in Eastern Europe. It is commonly known that, the collapse of Soviet power in Eastern Europe also brought the end of the USSR. The main purpose of this essay is to examine the reasons of the collapse of Soviet power in Eastern Europe. We will analyze this issue in terms of both, internal and external aspects. We have divided this essay into three parts. In the first part the background information in line with the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe relations will be given. In the second part, we will investigate the reasons of the collapse of the Soviet power in terms of internal affairs. The most important internal factors, like the illegitimacy of the Communist system, economic challenges, which USSR faced and the reforms of M. Gorbachev will be examined in this part. In the third part the external factors which caused the collapse of Soviet power in Eastern Europe, will be investigated. In the conclusion, the brief information will be given according to the results, which identified in the main part of this essay. From the mid-1940s to the late 1980s Moscow had two goals in line with the Europe. One of them was to maintain territorial and political advantage, attained in the final stage of World War II. The second one was to secure admission to and influence in, the other part of Europe. However their second purpose about the Europe was challenged by western counties. (Brooks & Wohlforth n.d.) After the de facto split of the Europe, USSR allocated financial support to the Eastern Europe in order to establish new socialist states in aforementioned region. To do so, Soviet government started to sign bilateral and multilateral contracts by the mid-1950s with the Eastern European states. (Blacker; n.d) The first reason for the collapse of the Soviet power in Europe was the illegitimacy of the domination of the Communist party, even in the beginning. Lenin came to power as a result of the bloody civil war between those who supported Lenin and who opposed the Soviet regime. The supporters of Lenin, namely Bolsheviks committed any kind of terror in order to win the war. Terror became the symbol of the communist regimes till the collapse of it in 1991. The successor of Lenin, Joseph Stalin followed this rule also. First of all he blackening the name of his main rival, Trotsky, then he exiled him from Russia. Finally Trotsky was assassinated by one of Stalin’s agent. Eastern Europe was also affected by this attitude of Soviet leaders. The Foreign Minister of Czechoslovakia, Jan Masaryk was killed and the President Eduard Benes was forced to resign by the agents of Stalin, when the latter was trying to establish a communist coup in Czechoslovakia. (Cox, 2009) ‘In course of further development of international revolution there will emerge two centers of world significance: a socialist center, drawing to itself the countries which tend toward socialism, and a capitalist center, drawing to itself the countries that incline toward capitalism. Battle between these two centers for command of world economy will decide fate of capitalism and of communism in entire world.’(Kennan; 1946 Cited in Stalin) However the great proportion of the people in the Eastern Europe did not support the socialist system. Soviet Union was the center of the Communism, which was based on the ideas of Karl Marx. According to the rules of the communism the private ownership was prohibited, all properties were the belongings of the state, all opposition parties were banned, power was concentrated into the hands of the Communist party. Furthermore Communist government was putting...

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